Basket Brigade: The charity that couldn’t say no
Christmas meal delivery for the needy is doing so much more
When Erwin Szeto first said “yes” — yes, to the inner call to help those in need — I don’t think he realized how pregnant the word was.
Then it had babies — lots of them. Offspring yes’s. And those yes’s in turn reproduced, like habits.
“I couldn’t say no,” is how Erwin, owner of Rock Star Real Estate, describes it.
Fortunately, Erwin induces the same reaction in others.
When he asks, they can’t seem to say no. Hence, the huge team of volunteers.
And so, after Erwin and Hamilton Basket Brigade co-founder Roger Auger started the charity in 2014, with a relatively modest Christmas meal delivery for 37 families, the positivity of the feeling, the yes-ness of it, wouldn’t stop growing.
It wasn’t supposed to be even that many.
Erwin went to the principal of a school and they came up with a list of eight families who were in need and interested in receiving.
But then he started finding out about others.
“I couldn’t say no.” From eight it jumped to 16 and then to 37. It was a great success.
But far from being able to let the project sit until the next December, Erwin started asking himself, why not replicate the effort? For Easter.
Soon the great machinery of it started roaring into motion and, lo and behold, Easter of 2015, he and the Hamilton Basket Brigade were delivering meals to, no, not 40 or even 50 families, but double — 75.
Then they did Thanksgiving too. How many? Double again — 150 families. Soon, at their thriceannual campaigns, the numbers were up over 200.
This Easter just past, Erwin and the Hamilton Basket Brigade were at it again, hosting a gettogether on Saturday, April 20, for the beneficiary families who wanted to come out to St. Patrick Catholic Elementary School in Hamilton.
It was a great time, as are all their parties, with visits from superheroes like Thor and, at Christmas, Santa Claus, and lots of activities.
And food.
Between those who were there and those who chose to have the packages delivered to their homes, the Basket Brigade helped 32 families.
Why just 32? A year or so ago the Basket Brigade decided to shift its emphasis. They would zero in on a smaller number of families, those with the most pressing circumstances, assign a volunteer to each of those families, get to know them and what they need and then tailor what they would provide — not just food, but clothing, toys at Christmas, and other resources and necessities.
The reason for the shift?
By its peak, Christmas 2017 the Hamilton Basket Brigade, was serving — wait for it — 350 families.
According to Basket Brigade stalwart Matt Green, the effort was enormous, involving coordinated teams of volunteers, dozens of them, working intensely, assembly-line fashion, to put together the meal packages.
Erwin and other brigadiers used all their contacts and managed to line up thousands of dollars of favours, free food and delivery trucks to transport it.
“It had gotten so big and successful,” says Matt, “that logistically it was becoming a burden. We had to shrink it down.”
If they made a movie of how the Hamilton Basket Brigade was back then it would have to combine the precision synchronization of “Oceans 11” with the coordinated mass transport of “Dunkirk” and the runaway Feed Me! growth of the plant in “Little Shop of Horrors.”
Maria Marcuzzi, a Hamilton Basket Brigade original who works with Erwin, is a big part of the organizational genius.
Says Erwin, smiling,“I would always say yes, create the mess and Maria would somehow take care of it.”
The Hamilton Basket Brigade continues to evolve. It’ll be exciting to see what it does next.
But it’s a safe bet it will hold on to a vocabulary that doesn’t include the word no.